New legislation makes fake vaccination cards a crime

PLATTSBURGH | Gov. Kathy Hochul has signed new legislation to improve the state's response to the pandemic, including streamlined school access to immunization databases and funding studies on COVID-19 impacts on the economy and health care systems. It also makes the falsification of COVID-19 vaccination cards a misdemeanor crime. "We need to make sure we learn the lessons of the pandemic so we don't make the same mistakes twice," Gov. Hochul said in announcing the legislation Dec. 22. "These new laws will help us improve our response to the pandemic now, crack down on fraudulent use of vaccination records, and help us better understand the areas of improvement we need to make to our health care system so we can be even more prepared down the road." The measures now classify vaccination records under the forgery statute, which makes the falsification of vaccination cards a Class A misdemeanor. It also created a felony-level crime for any intentional computer tampering of COVID-19 records. To improve school access to statewide immunization databases by requiring the Department of Health to allow every school to access records for students. Rather than having to individually search each student's records and manually download them, schools will now be able to download full rosters of vaccination data to save hours for staff and improve infection responses with a growing number of school-aged children now being vaccinated. Studies are also now authorized to study the delivery of ambulatory care and other medical responses of the pandemic, as well as the financial and economic impacts.

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New legislation makes fake vaccination cards a crime

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